AWADmail Issue 738

A Weekly Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day and Tidbits about Words and Language

Sponsor’s Message:
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Perhaps the most famous use of this word comes from the Soup Nazi
episode of Seinfeld, where Newman emerges from the shop with a brown
bag, and looking down wide-eyed into it, he excitedly exclaims,
“Jambalaya!!” (video, 5 sec.)

While the main meaning is that of a messy tangle and it certainly
implies a mix of random things, it is interesting to note that in
languages like Italian (farraginoso) or French (farragineux), this
adjective is used to describe something plentiful and messy, confusing,
illogical. A speech, an essay, an administration can be farraginous,
to mean cumbersome, rumbling. More examples: the plot of a novel or of
a movie can be farraginous, if it is not fluid and full of flashbacks,
and so the judicial system (with reference to its rapidity, or the lack
thereof), or when the solution of a mathematical problem is reached through
a process unnecessarily long and counterintuitive.

Emanuela Appetiti, Washington, DC

From: Marc Chelemer (mc2496 att.com)
Subject: Farraginous

What is it about food that inspires so many words that mean, to some extent
or another, heterogeneous? Yesterday’s alternative definition of jambalaya
was just that. Today’s word means that straightaway. A couple of years back,
you had another weeks of food words, three of which -- salmagundi,
olla podrida, and gallimaufry
-- all meant a hodgepodge, a
jumble, a heterogeneous mixture. Even goulash
from the week before that one had this as an alternate, and
bouillabaisse also had something similar as
an alternative definition. Each culture and linguistic tradition has its own
word for a mixture; I find it intriguing that the reference always flows
through something related to food.

In the South African press world (at least), a ragout (rag-out?) refers to
a pictorial reference torn out (or made to appear to have been torn out)
from a previous publication to accompany a report or story -- a visual
reminder or cross-reference to a previous article, which may include a page,
picture, headline, or even text.

Jim Jones didn’t use Kool-Aid. It was Flavor-Aid, a Kool-Aid knock-off.
(Wiki)

Tim Kemp, Fayetteville, Georgia

A large number of readers echoed similar comments. The above
Wiki page for Flavor-Aid and the Wiki page for Kool-Aid both indicate that
the Jonestown footage showed that they had both products.
It’s not known whether they actually used one or the other or
both. We’ve revised our webpage to reflect that:
“... by drinking Kool-Aid and/or Flavor-Aid laced with cyanide.”
-Anu Garg

Email of the Week: Milk a dollar out of every dime, before it’s too late - SHOP OLD’S COOL NOW.

From: Cathy Flynn (rncmf aol.com)
Subject: kool-aid

Years ago, I joined a gym and hired a personal trainer. This young
man certainly had a knack for convincing me to do crazy things I never
thought I’d do (like flipping giant truck tires). That is, until the day
he cajoled, “C’mon, drink the kool-aid!” I stopped, put my hands on my
hips, and responded, “You do realize that everyone who drank the kool-aid
DIED, don’t you? That’s no way to convince me!” He had no idea what I was
talking about. So after a brief history lesson, it was back to exercise. Yes,
I did drink that kool-aid, and no, it didn’t kill me!

Cathy Flynn, Brooklyn, New York

From: Andrew Pressburger (andpress sympatico.ca)
Subject: Kool-Aid

Founding father of the movement called New Journalism, Tom Wolfe, published
his seminal work The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test in 1968. In it he describes
his bus trip with Ken Kesey’s band of Merry Pranksters and talks about
his conversations with them about “dropping acid”, scientifically known
as taking LSD. Apparently, the drink of Kool-Aid was used to disguise the
flavour of the lysergic acid in the mixture.

The Pranksters became promoters of Timothy Leary’s slogan “Turn on, tune
in, drop out”, with the pleasing cadence of the end particles in the
above phrase. This is a long way from Wolfe’s other works, such as
The Right Stuff or even The Bonfire of the Vanities.

I have a word for you that does not appear in any dictionary that I’m
aware of. It might amuse you. It’s certainly very useful: Claytons.
The current GOP presidential candidate could be described as a Clayton’s
candidate. The candidate you have when you don’t have a candidate!

Trump email to Cruz: “Just imagine us
Combined as a team -- how farraginous!
Become one of my peeps;
Join my short-list of Veeps.
I’m acetic and you’re oleaginous.”
-Oliver Butterfield, Kelowna, Canada (oliver49 shaw.ca)

Said the toady in tones oleaginous,
though you use me in matters farraginous,
I’ll be faithful and true,
Sir, to no one but you
and I’ll stick like a thing mucilagenous.
-Zelda Dvoretzky, Haifa, Israel (zeldahaifa gmail.com)

The artist, whose work is farraginous,
Prefers to remain autonomous.
His art hangs on walls
In the greatest of halls,
But is signed by the name Anonymous.
-Judith Marks-White, Westport, Connecticut (joodth snet.net)

The Donald always takes the bait.
Slings and arrows he cannot abide or abate.
His response is to fire back with double the cannon fire
And he thinks this tactic makes him rise higher.
And still we wait for him to self-immolate.
-Christopher Lumpkin, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (calmichigan gmail.com)